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@Fridge feel free to message me any new info or interesting articles on fungi. I've been into mycology for the last few years and am always looking for new info. I used to be a nature guide and so always loved photographing animals. These days I just walk the forests for my own interest and fun/exercise, and I take just as many photos of fungi as I do of birds and animals on my hikes. Here are some of those pics. We have some truly amazing species right here in SA. As time passes, I find the smaller things in nature to be even more intriguing than the larger ones. @ORGANinc. the Red Stinkhorn (below) has been speculated to be mycorrhizal (as well as being saprophytic). No idea which plants they form a symbiosis with. They are so strange... smell just like rotting meat to attract flies so they can disperse spores. I dry heaved a few times when I smelled this one LOL.

Merry Xmas 420SA. ✌✌ I thought decorating a xmas tree was a mission.

Amnesia Haze auto - Week 11. The others will come down over the next 2 days. For a first shot at autos, I'm quite pleased.

So, I was sitting in traffic looking out of the window of my car and saw something that caught my eyes. A real South African beauty on the side of the road. I felt sorry for her. She had to stand there day in day out and nobody helped her... ....I just couldn't get her out of my head. There wasn't one day I didn't think of her. Till I finally decided to dare it and take her home... ...she was grateful I took her in, but most of her roots where on the streets and she needed a lot of tender, loving care. I honestly thought one day I'll wake up and she's gone... ...but it didn't take long till she felt comfortable at her new home. By now she's the shining beauty she was when I first saw her. These days we're doing everything together. We even go to the beach, smoke bongs and enjoy the view... Guys, I hope you liked my little story. Happy growing and merry Christmas!!! Edit: credit for the last foto goes to @Onion who helped me with this. Thank you Onion!

Pic #1 Choc Gelato x Ghost Train Haze. Pic #2 Choc Gelato x Slurricane. These two are loving the shade house. Doing their own thing and getting water Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. I'll be leaving the indoor seedling in it's tray for now. To scared to transplant to be honest. Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

Happy Holidays....

I've been growing for three seasons now, mostly autoflowers outdoors but we've recently finished building a small greenhouse so I can hopefully grow some photoperiods along side the autos. I recently got a mars hydro 70x70cm tent with a Liontree 100w double barrel LED light as a veg tent so I can start my plants indoors before moving them outdoors, I have been very impressed with the growth so far. The ones growing now are some Pure African Sativa by Green Smoke Room, just over two weeks since sprout. My greenhouse is made with glass doors in the front and sides and poly-carbonate on the roof and back with a wooden frame, I have two fans for circulation, a dehumidifier and an air cooler to keep the temps low and humidity up in the heat. The dehumidifier has been a lifesaver as it's gotten me through many thunder storms already. I also have a 12 blumat system to keep the pots from drying out the living soil. I love growing outdoors and this greenhouse has been wonderful so far. I have a couple plants I'm going to harvest next weekend with the Sweet N Sour by Mephisto looking like my favorite. Trumps Cookie Jar by President Seeds also turned out to be a monster for some reason, excited to see how it turns out as it's taking it's time. My goal this season is to learn how to clone, how to reverse females, and learn how to do some old fashion regular breeding. I have some Blue Orca Haze seeds from Swami Organic Seeds that I got from Arbour Collective and I want to make some more seeds from those and hopefully get a good male so I can start some pollen chucking with my other strains and see what I get. I have also been trying to support some local breeders, excited to try out some Head Honcho Genetics and Motherland Genetics. I may have developed a seed addiction though. Managed to snag some Sakura by Bodhi as well, hoping that will be some good night time medicine for my insomnia. Just waiting till around mid January to start some of these photoperiods as I don't want them getting too big. I love trying all these different genetics to see what excels in my environment. I still have much to learn in this amazing hobby, I grew up smoking dank in California and want to reach that level of quality I remember.

Some beautiful shots bud

Nothing to report on the indoor. Outdoor ones super happy as well. Made a dark room for the one which went into flower and have put it into 12/12. Must admit that there has been minimal work on this grow. Planted seeds, watered and then the waiting. Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

The little weedlings love the sun..

Part of the reason I want to learn to reverse females is to take my remaining mephisto seeds and make more of them. I wouldn't mind always having a mephisto or night owl auto growing in the greenhouse. I found them quite sensitive to grow though, definitely start them out in a seedling mix or coco in a veg tent to nail the first 30 days without any stress. The Jammy Dodgers was a very strong indica high that shows up fast, very nice sweet smell and taste. Hard to grind since it's so sticky. My sweet n sour has a strong sweet smell, looking very frosty currently, she's supposed to be mainly sativa so I'm looking forward to trying her. Very nice structure and growth. I also have a Cremetasmo, she is a bit short but smells wonderful.

Fungi are truly amazing and we likely are not using them to their full potential. @Teal Smith some lovely pictures there!

Some Chicken of the woods.... Butter and garlic.

I think I love looking at my plants through the greenhouse glass in the natural sun way too much to ever go fully indoors. I grew some Jammy Dodgers by Mephisto last season but had to harvest early so it was a bit too racy, but the potency was certainly there, if I can nail decent potency and taste I will be pretty happy where I am at.

Flush ahead of xmas Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

It's grass bro...

This is my ethos autoflower. Pluto Cut. I will most definately grow it again. Tennis ball sized budz.

Ho Ho Hooooo Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

I desided it was time to really test the efectivity of these companion plants with regards to pests.. Chamomile, Sage, Basil and Marigold. I know when planted in the same pot, Marigold can be very beneficial.. Got some seeds and put them in Jiffies.. A few days later and I have a few showing face... Sooo dam tiny...

Howzit guys Time for the next strain to step into the spotlight... Orange Road by Old School Genetics is a collaboration between OSG and Karma Genetics. OSG has been breeding for a while, but has only really gone commercial over the last year. What sets him apart is his network of friends/contacts, and the fact that he is sitting on some of the oldest and rarest cuts available today. Just off the top of my head, he has in his personal collection: - Original White Widow from the early 90's - NYC Diesel, the infamous grapefruit or Soma cut - Blueberry and Blue Moonshine from DJ's original work in the late 80's - Super Silver Haze, the cup winning cut from 1998 There are plenty more, but those are a few of the ones that stood out for me. Orange Road is a cross of his NYC Diesel (The Piff) crossed to Karma's Road Dawg (Stardawg {topdawg seeds} x Biker Kush) From the pics of IG, I can already see that it won't be too hard to find a pheno that leans to the NYC Diesel side of the cross. I will be popping a pack of these myself soon. Orange Road are fems. So if you have limited space, and would like a taste of one the greatest elites of all times, then this strain would be a good choice.

Hi guys, My partner will be on the Hotbox show this Thursday to discuss Golden Goose, and to give away a sweet hoodie and a pack of seeds. Which pack of seeds do you think we should give away? Unfortunately Headbanger is out. Not due to the price, but those beans are a little hard to come by. So we would like to retain our stock of that strain for as long as possible. I hope you understand. Hopefully I can get a few suggestions from you guys before Thursday. Cheers!

Fungus gnats

I'm not a huge fan of cookies either. I've grown a few out, and smoked a few more. Some are decent, but I really don't understand the hype.

Ethos Mandarin Cookies put me off cookie strains to be honest. Would be keen to try some again at some point though.

@Golden-Goose I think the Critical Banana looks pretty good. Stardawg x Fire Alien Kush is also quite intriguing.

Thanks man! Hope she burns nice and tasty !

Looking great man! Nice one!

Ok, here's what I do but everyone has different ways I guess. As soon as I see flowers in an autoflower, I continue giving veg nutes for a week or so (that is if you give veg nutes). I do that as the plant will still stretch and the bigger the plant is before it goes into full flowering mode the better. 1-2 weeks after I see the first pistils I start adding bloom nutes only. But there are some "auto only growers" here in the forum. Prom for example has plenty of experience and grows exclusively autos as far as I know. He uses the Biobizz line and has an own feeding chart. I'm just not sure where to find it... But if you'd want to go that route you would need to invest a bit in Biobizz ferts which are worth the money though.

I put mine in direct sunlight early on. They tend to stretch less..

I agree with Bakstein, beautiful pictures you took there! I warched some interesting videos on that topic. I'll see if I can find them and send you the links @Teal Smith.

Sorry about the long delay in posting. Here are the girls, they've gone into flower. Blueberry Blueberry 2 Auto Orange Daiquiri Lime I might have been too light on the nutes though. Ay, so much learning though. Anyways, I saw an aphid today. I'm pretty anal about pest control so I'm a bit bummed. I have organic pyrol and neem oil. Safe to use now? Thanks all

I've trimmed most of the old flowering growth away from the test plant and tightened her ropes a bit. We have had a lot of rain the last few weeks. I'm thankful for fabric pots as I would most certainly have had issues with root rot and overwatering during this rainy period, were it not the fabric pots. As such, I have not watered any of my outdoor plants, but I have continue to apply KFPE in foliar applications. I have planted some swazi hybrids a while ago from my bag seed for further testing purposes as well as for harvesting of substrate material for the fermented extracts. I've tested a 1:30 dilution of KFPE on 2 week old seedlings. After 3 days of daily applications I started seeing yellowing of leaves and burning of the tips of all the leaves. This was in contrast to the seedlings that did not get treated. I haven't notice any indication of nutrient excesses or nutrient burn on the mature test plant at these ratios of application, but her new growth appears very green and lush and seeing as most articles on fermented plant juice (FPJ) extracts recommends dilution rates of 1:100 - 1:500 for mature plants in soil drench and foliar application and 1:500 - 1:1000 ratios for seedlings. For the purpose of this research work and the results witnessed of nutrient burn on young seedlings I will mark down 1:30 as maximum strength for short periods of application to remedy or address particular situations, but not for long term maintenance application. For a full strength application for my research and testing purposes, I'm going to keep to a ratio of 1:40 (25ml / liter), but alter the foliar application frequencies to 1 application every other day. I'm not going to apply this mixture to seedlings younger than 3 weeks. I'll start testing the same ratios on some seedlings as and when they mature a bit. The fermentations have kept me quite busy. I'm just going to highlight a few aspects here. Anyone reading this that are interested in more detail as to what I'm doing are welcome to post any questions here and I'll gladly answer if I can. I'm currently building a toolbox of cultures, with kombucha culture as the main star team of the show, but it's far from the only tool in the toolbox and there are quite a few quick and easy cultures that anyone can make at home that will make a big difference in their organic gardening. Once such tool in the toolbox, is lactic acid bacteria. Their are a multitude of articles written on the subject of Lactobacillus and Agriculture. Reference example To make a serum of lactic acid bacteria is cheap and easy. I'm not going into the method. YouTube has hundreds of videos if you search on how to make lactic acid bacteria serum (LABS or LAB). I've been using LABS now as an added inoculant in all my open ferments. I've already started cultivation of a kombucha scoby on molasses, which should yield a lactobacillus dominant culture, but just to help things along in the right direction, I make sure I add some labs to all the ferments, with the obvious exception when making rum or whiskey washes. After a lot of reading on studies done with various substrates used with Kombucha, I realize how much potential there is and how much we still don't know. The kombucha culture, called a scoby, changes structure on microbial level according to the mix of substrates given. The substrates needs to be a source of carbon, like sugar or molasses or even milk and a source of nitrogen, like black or green tea leaves, or any soft and green plant matter. Anything that you would normally think of using in a FPJ, you can use as a substrate for kombucha. The extraction of the plant material is much quicker and much more effective than a FPJ or any lacto-fermented FPJ, because there are a much greater variety of organisms, including yeasts and fungi, that work together in symbiosis to break down organic matter. The plant matter used plays an important role in the composition and effectiveness of the final product. Plants and herbs that shows promise in using as substrates for KFPE include, but are not limited to: cannabis leaves and flowers, malted sorghum and barley, lucerne, stinging nettle, peppermint, basil, moringa, comfrey, chamomile, lemongrass and others similar. Fruits and fruit peels can be added for some enzymes and nutritional value. Molasses seems to be the most effective option for the purpose to use as a carbon source as it inhibits the growth of acetobacter and thus encourages the growth of lactobacilli on the lactic acid rich molasses. In the process of making a sour mash with sorghum and or barley malt it is heated and kept at amylase operating temperatures for required duration, allowing it to convert any complex carbs into simple sugars and thus adding to the total sugar of the added molasses. Any plant material that is fermented this way, will have been heated to and kept at a maximum temperature of 78 degrees C for about an hour, allowing the amylase to convert starches and nutrients to be extracted from the plant material into the water. The plant material is kept in the mash for the first ferment, which is extended for 14 days. Thereafter it is strained from the mash. This fermented plant material is perfect to add to the compost heap or worm bin. The liquid will be added to the mother culture of KFPE for further fermentation and aging. This process can be a couple of weeks or as longs as a couple of months. Growth and health of the forming culture layer or biofilm will determine the next steps. The KFPE is in phase 1 at this point, but can already be applied in soil drench or foliar application with 1:40 ratio. As the mother culture matures and a greater variety of substrates are being used in the fermentations, it should get closer to a point where you can suspend it in sugar or molasses for long term storage. At this point, it will be combined with some photosynthetic bacteria, which is cultivated separately from the KFPE.

whats up! welcome to the forum!! if its Cali quality you are after, you wont find it outdoor bro... gotta get your indoor setup up to scratch or all you are gonna be harvesting is not gonna reach the quality spectra you are after. it will be decent smoke dont get me wrong!! but you are aiming for the galaxies and outdoor doesnt take you there bud. but come! learn how to clone and reverse and manipulate this wonderful plant!! we can guide you to a realm where cali weed will smoke like jut compared to your cuisine. give us time...we will give you quality advice and make sure you bring down the best you can grow!

@Fridge Awesome, that is fascinating, thanks man :) Agree 100%. There is intelligence at work there for sure. Like something almost otherworldly. So many different species of fungi, all with different functions, without which life on this planet wouldn't exist. Pretty crazy how fungi are more closely related to us than they are to plants, too.

@Teal Smith, slime mold might be one of the most interesting things on earth. As far as I remember they aren't made of many cells but they are one big cell that can split up and merge again. It can change it's appearance to many different forms. It seems to be quite intelligent and It seems like a life form from another planet. I read about a slime mold that covers several square kilometers. Will check if I find that article now... Here we go: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus/

Fungi are fascinating. So diverse and they can do so many things. Thanks for sharing @ORGANinc.. Something I came across the other day, you might find interesting, check out this video https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/slime-mold-navigate-maze/ There are certain slime molds that were able to navigate their way around a maze to get to a food source. Nature never ceases to amaze

I pulled the trigger on Headbanger can't wait!

Very interesting post @ORGANinc.. Thanks for posting! I grew up in an area that was effected by the radioactive cloud and acid rain caused by the Chernobyl disaster. I can remember I wasn't allowed to go play in the rain, lol. In certain areas, especially in Scandinavia it is not advisable to eat mushrooms that are growing in the wild as they take up radioactivity from the ground. Any other stuff that grows there is edible be it berries, apples, etc. Mushrooms are fascinating life forms. Wild mushrooms in Finland still containing high radioactive cesium from Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 « nuclear-news (nuclear-news.net)

Sundaze with some Strawberry Cheesecake and Jade the Bong..... and some kak tasting green tea in a can

Just a heads up guys. Originality, thought and effort is what will, in most cases, get you the prize. Keep that in mind while we near the closing date

Purple Pineapple Express F1.

Enjoying the sun with gratitude Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

View from below.

Anybody know what strain this is ? I was gifted seeds by a friend from Canada in June 2020, he doesn't know either.

Happy Birthday. Dusted off the ''rolling'' skills for a mates' birthday. Triple Kingsize blader with 6 grams (3gr Bubblegum+ 3gr Vanilla Kush) A good time was had by all.

And look who decided to pop up all by itself. Must be smelling the rainwater that woke it up Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk